Rylands 20

Wigan St. Patricks 20

A MIS-DIRECTED penalty kick in the closing stages left Rylands cursing their luck in a game they should have won comfortably.

They started well, taking the lead after eight minutes through a Peter Ryder penalty. Continued pressure led to Tommy Brennan scampering over the line from five yards out. Ryder converted.

Wigan stirred themselves and scored their first points of the game with a penalty. Rylands went to sleep as the end of the first half approached and Wigan capitalised to grab a converted try and level the scores.

The home side were back to their best when they started the second half, scoring two tries in five minutes from Mick Mullen and Jeff Lowe, both coverted by Ryder.

However, Rylands decided to rest on their laurels after this impressive burst and let up the pressure once more.

Wigan made the most of some slack defending to hit back with two converted tries to level the game once more at 20-20.

Rylands then had a glorious chance to restore their lead when they were awarded a penalty in front of the posts in the dying moments. But it was a rare miss from Phil Stevens and his side were left kicking themselves as they had to settle for a draw.

Team: P. Stevens, A. Sankey, P. Elliott, P. Ryder, C. Porrino, J. Ward, L. Kirkham, A. Penny, A. Brinksman, A. Garratt, J. Lowe, T. Brennan, M. Ward, P. Stubbs, J. Robinson, J. Brennan and M. Mullen.

Next week, Rylands are away in the second round of the National Cup to Keithley Albion and the seconds travel to Kirkholt.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.